Google | The Verge

Google Earth’s AI deepfake tool only lasted one day

2026-07-31T15:13:29-04:00

Pompeii reimagined with Nano Banana 2 in Google Earth. | Image: Google

Google has shut down Google Earth feature it launched Thursday that allowed users to edit satellite images with text prompts using AI. The tool essentially let users create AI deepfakes of the real world using text prompts; Digital Digging's Henk van Ess, for example, intentionally generated images adding things like refugees near the Mexican border and a bomb crater by a hospital in Gaza. On Thursday, Google's initial response to van Ess noted that images generated with Nano Banana 2 in Google Earth included a digital watermark and that the company prevented "image creation on harmful topics."

One day later, Google's new statement says tha …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google might launch a ‘Pixel Tag’

2026-07-31T14:27:24-04:00

Google is seemingly working on an item tracker that might compete with Apple's AirTag. 9to5Google obtained an image of something called a "Google Pixel Tag" that has a small oval shape. The publication also linked to a Slovenian store listing about the Pixel Tag that describes the gadget as an item tracker with a speaker that uses Google's "Find My Device" network (which is now called Find Hub).

The Pixel Tag is popping up shortly ahead of Google's planned hardware launch event for August 12th. Google has already shown off teases of the Pixel 11 lineup for the event, and leaks have also appeared for a new foldable, smartwatch, and earbuds. …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Here’s the problem with putting an AI image generator in Google Earth

2026-07-31T16:12:14-04:00

A text prompt was all it took to generate reality-warping images using Google Earth's satellite, aerial, and 3D imagery with a now-rolled back AI feature, like these images generated by Digital Digging's Henk van Ess that show "refugees near the Mexican border" and a bomb crater near a hospital in Gaza.

Google initially responded to Digital Digging's AI-altered images, saying, "We take misinformation seriously - every image created with Nano Banana in Google Earth includes the SynthID digital watermark, so if someone is unsure about an image, they can ask the Gemini app or use Lens in Search to see if the image was AI-generated." In additi …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google DeepMind’s new AI model can control a robot’s entire body

2026-07-30T13:18:45-04:00

Apptronik’s Apollo 2 robot takes a baseball glove off of a shelf. | Image: Google

Google DeepMind says the latest version of its Gemini Robotics AI model can "control entire humanoid robots." While the previous model focused on controlling a humanoid robot's upper body, Gemini Robotics 2 now supports "whole-body motions" ranging from its feet to fingertips, according to an announcement on Thursday.

The new model will allow humanoid robots to perform a wider range of actions, as it allows them to walk, crouch, stretch, and manipulate objects. Videos shared by Google show how Apptronik's Apollo 2 robot can bend over to pick up a watering can, as well as find and take specific items off a shelf.

Though Google DeepMind not …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google is working on Chrome updates that don’t require restarts

2026-07-30T11:57:54-04:00

Google is working on a way to apply Chrome updates without requiring you to restart your browser. In a post on Thursday, Google outlines its approach to bug fixes in the age of AI, while noting that it's trying to make updates less disruptive by "investing in 'dynamic patching' that will eliminate the need for a full browser restart."

According to Google, AI-powered security tools have already helped the company find and fix dozens of bugs. Chrome 149 and 150, for example, contained 1,072 bug fixes, exceeding the number of patches in the past 23 major releases combined. That's part of the reason why Chrome is switching to a two-week release …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Pixel 11 Pro Fold design leaks ahead of Google launch event

2026-07-30T13:04:31-04:00

Weeks ahead of Google's next Pixel hardware event, Leaker Evan Blass has shared what appear to be marketing renders of the unannounced Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold in a post on his Substack.

The renders, if accurate, show that the new foldable will look fairly similar to last year's model - it has a tall outer screen instead of using a shorter style like the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the rumored foldable iPhone. The renders also show that the inner screen will retain the 8-inch size. However, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold's back camera array has been slightly redesigned and will apparently get the glowy light that Google has already teased for the Pixel …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Artists are lawyering up against AI slop, and some are even winning

2026-07-28T16:19:25-04:00

Artists whose work has been co-opted by AI are taking to court. | Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

When The Atlantic published a searchable dataset of works used to train AI, Kirk Wallace Johnson, like a lot of artists, looked for his name out of curiosity. And, like a lot of artists, he found it. Essentially, his books, like The Feather Thief and The Fishermen and the Dragon - nonfiction tomes that he spent "five to six years researching, writing, and investigating" - had been pirated and fed to a chatbot. He says he felt a "cocktail" of emotions: "anger over the brazenness of the theft, worry over what this means for writers, and a healthy thirst for revenge on these massive corporations that have become galactically wealthy" using his …

Read the full story at The Verge.

AI leaders sign a statement asking the government to do something about automated AI

2026-07-28T19:14:53-04:00

Employees of OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as Google, Meta, Thinking Machines, Microsoft, Mistral, and other leading AI labs, have written a statement to the US government supporting a potential slowdown of sorts for frontier AI development - or at least a speed-up of global coordinated governance efforts.

"Al could help create a dramatically better future, but that outcome is not guaranteed," the employees wrote in the statement. "The world's leading Al companies believe they could be close to automating Al research. It is hard to predict exactly how much this will accelerate Al progress, but there is a real risk that capability developmen …

Read the full story at The Verge.

AI’s finally expensive enough to make Wall Street nervous

2026-07-28T19:37:03-04:00

Working hard, or bear-ly working? | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

It's earnings season, and investors got an unpleasant surprise from Google: an increase on its spending estimate, to as much as $205 billion - from the last quarter's projection of up to $190 billion. Even the lower end of Google's new projected range - $195 billion - is much more than the company had previously forecast as its top end spending. Now, look, I recognize that there's an impulse to say things like "What's $15 billion between friends?" but from an investor's perspective, Google has essentially said that it can't accurately forecast its costs, which is a scary thing. Plus, Google is spending more money than it's making. And Google …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Google basically confirms the Pixel 11 is getting a price hike

2026-07-27T05:27:44-04:00

Google's vice president of devices and services, Shakil Barkat, all but confirmed in an interview with 9to5 Google that its next Pixel phone would cost more than the Pixel 10. Considering the ongoing RAM supply issues due to the explosion of AI data centers, the rumored price hike is not a complete surprise. Companies from Apple to Nintendo and Microsoft to Roku have all raised their prices in response to the soaring cost of memory.

Barkat said that Google had "shielded our consumers from supply fluctuations for as long as possible," but that the "economics have fundamentally shifted and we're not immune to that." He went on to tell 9to5 th …

Read the full story at The Verge.